Ahira's Hangar

And now a second perfect game over the weekend?

How often do you get two perfect games in one season, and three in two seasons???

Some amazing pitching going on. That's for sure!

And I never thought I'd see my Braves ahead of the Phillies in the standings this year.

I just got done watching the midnight replay of the Detroit Tigers game that they put on the TV for folks like me who work the off shifts.

I cannot remember ever seeing a call as bad as that one in a baseball game (NHL games yes- baseball no).

I am in tears and think I might puke.

One crappy call takes away a perfect game from Armando Galarraga.

Had to take tums last night in order to get to bed as my stomach was so upset over that call.

At least the umpire had the maturity and class to admit his mistake almost immediately and apologize to Galarraga. Galarraga showed his usual quiet class and kindness in return. He has been noted for his groundedness and kindness ever since he came to the team as a rookie back in 2008.

Here in the D we only hope that this call was so glaringly wrong that baseball will finally enter the twentieth (if not the twenty first) century and begin to use modern technology to help out the umpires on disputed game changing calls like that one. Why should this poor umpire (and a very good umpire from all reports) have to live with a mistake of this magnitude hanging over him for the rest of his career? Not to mention protecting players, teams, fans, and the sport as a whole from horrible mis-calls like that one.

Almost overshadowed by the mess at Comerica last night, Ken Griffey Junior retired last night. One of the greatest players of the modern era, and rumored to have been a clean and PED clear one! You have to wonder how many records he might have set (or come close to) if he had stayed healthy throughout his career, and if so many others of his times had not been roid monkeys...should be a first ballet Hall of Famer.

I feel so bad for the pitcher and the umpire. More for the pitcher. It's rare enough to be a pitcher that lucks into getting a no hitter. Many greats never threw a single one. A perfect game? We've had a stretch from 1969-what the 90s? where no one threw one. And now three in one year.

I saw a petition to get the commissioner to give the pitcher a perfect game retroactivealy. I can't imagine baseball doing that as it opens the door to other's wanting the same thing, but it would be the right thing to do in this instance.

That was a career making game for Mando. After many years of kicking around in the minors for various teams he finally got a chance for the Tigers in the horrendous 2008 season. He pitched great that year. In fact, he was one of the few good things to come out of that season! Then along came the World Baseball Classic where he was a starting pitcher for Venezuela and the 2009 season. Somewhere along the line he lost his first rate (nearly unhittable) slider and his confidence. Ended up being sent to AAA partway through the season. Started off this year in AAA, where he regained form. Tigers called him up just a couple of weeks ago and he did OK to the point where they decided to stick with him and trade away Dontrelle Willis. Then last night happened.

Everyone just loves the big lug. He has always been quiet, classy, and kind, without ever a bad word directed towards anyone. Even after that great rookie season and knowing that when his slider is working it is spectacular, no one expected a performance like last night's!

Supposedly one of the biggest problems he has had with his career is that he is too intelligent. Often when he gets out on the mound he starts thinking too much and freezes up/slows down rather than just going out and attacking the strike zone. Last night his slider was working and he was trying to pitch without sinking too much thought into it. Obviously it worked.

Hopefully this will be a turning point of sorts for him - he's a genuinely good guy!

I feel bad for him - he lost out on officially having the twenty first perfect game in MLB history - but the umpire has been in tears in public several times over this. It is obvious that he takes his job very seriously and tries to do his best. I honestly think he might feel worse over this than the pitcher does.

And everyone around here knows that Mando really did get a 28 out perfect game! GM gave him shiny Corvette convertible today as a special reward for being the first Tiger in the history of the franchise to do that! So it might not be in the record books - but we all know what he accomplished.

When I watched the replay (2 times) in full speed motion, I agreed with the umpire, he was safe. It was only in the slow motion replay that my eye can detect him being safe. So really hard to fault the ump for being so sure in his call at first.

Yes, I think that the ump truly believed the guy was safe (until he saw the slo-mo replay). And no one feels worse than the ump that he was wrong. This is a perfect case for the expanded use of instant replay - in this case it would have protected the umpire.

The ump himself said it - the Tigers did not really start to argue until after the 28'th out and some of them had seen the replay back in the clubhouse. They came boiling out and were yelling at him that they had seen the replay and that he had the call wrong. He was the last person to be able to see the replay, and his heart broke when he saw it.

How come the guy making the crucial call is the last one to be able to watch the replay? After it is too late to fix the problem?

That is just...wrong.

My older son told me last night that he has seen a theory being kicked around about all of these no hitters and perfect games over the last couple of seasons. It involves the MLB banning amphetamines a while back. At least two of the perfect games (including Galarraga's and Braden's) were against teams towards the end of longish road trips. I have not had time to google around and check to see if this is the case for all or even most of them.

So then...leaving out the "mere" no hitters:
Mark Buehrle from last season
Dallas Braden from this season
Roy Halladay from this season
Armando Galarraga from this season

When I have time I will try to check this out. If anyone else wants to check on this theory in the meantime, please do! I will not have a day off until next Tuesday, so it might be a long wait if people wait for me.

edited to add:
Was too curious and googled around, even though I should be starting to get ready for work.

July 23, 2009
Mark Buehrle perfect game for the White Sox v. Tampa Bay
Tampa was on game 7 of a road trip

May 9, 2010
Dallas Braden perfect game for the Oakland A's v. Tampa Bay
Tampa was on game 6 of a west coast road trip

May 29,2010
Roy Halladay perfect game for Phillies v. Florida Marlins
Marlins at home, if I read the schedule correctly. This is the outlier!

June 2, 2010
Armando Galarrage 28 out perfect game (though not scored as such) v. Cleveland Indians
The Tribe on game 6 of a road trip.

Anyone planning on watching the MLB debut of that super-hyped young pitcher for the nationals tomorrow night?

I caught a bit of the Nationals game last night - enough to know that the Strasburg kid might be the real deal (though he was pitching against a pretty bad team, so will reserve judgement until he goes up against some good hitters).

Always nice to see them get off to a good start though. As long as they aren't playing my team, that is. Then I want them to give up 100 runs <grin>.

One name makes me very happy about my team this month. Not one you would expect, either.

Brennan Boesch

If this kid keeps this level of play up, he might be considered for AL rookie of the year. He is running neck and neck with that really good Braves rookie for overall MLB rookie stats, and has about twenty fewer games. And no Strasburg in the Al rookie race.

I'll root for him for the AL award if you root for Heyward (Braves) for the NL award. And we can both aqree to root that anyone but the Yankees wins yet another WS! <grin>